And so my tour has officially begun. Superfast VIII has sailed and as Helsinki and Finland grows smaller on the horizon, I look ahead to foreign shores, and the adventure that awaits.

I want to thank the friendly mechs at Velotema for making this a good day to start this journey. Not only did they change the broken spoke in a ridiculously short time. They also realigned my gears and adjusted the brakes for nearly no added cost at all. I truly feel like a valued customer every time I walk into that shop.

Superfast then, well it still takes 24.5 hours to get to Rostock. The public passenger areas look nice enough, but they're only a fraction of the size compared to the ones on Mariella. This is a ferry, not a cruise ship. The sleeping lounge is ok, but the seats aren't numbered even though the tickets are. But everyone in there seemed openminded enough, so it shouldn't pose any problem. Now all I have to do is kill off 23 hours or so. At least I brought some topical reading with me; Stephen Lord - Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook :)